robin2099

Chuck Norris. The man couldn't act, his movies were cornball and yet there was something about him that made him a star in the 80's and a pop culture punchline today.

After getting his neck broken by Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon he had some small roles before landing the lead in Breaker! Breaker! He then did a lost of martial arts movies over a six year period including An Eye for an Eye and The Octagon. He then did Lone Wolf Mcquade which is one of his best movies before starting with Cannon in Missing in Action. From there we got Invasion USA, Firewalker and The Delta Force among others. However after Cannon died his theatrical career was mainly over while he focused on his TV series Walker:Texas Ranger.

While never on the same level as Arnold and Sly, he was the prototype of the martial artist as an actor and was unique for doing martial arts moves in standard action movies. He also was so popular in the 1980's he got his own cartoon where himself and not a character he played was the star.

The five Chuck Norris movies you need to see:

1. Lone Wolf Mcquade: More of a western but has a great fight scene with David Carradine and probably his best pre Cannon movie.

2. Invasion USA: Not much more I can add about this one.

3. Missing in Action: Entertaining Rambo knock off.

4. The Hitman: Probably his best post Cannon movie that he did easily.

5. Silent Rage: Come on, it's Chuck Norris versus Michael Myers.

Honorable mention: Code of Silence. Probably his best directed movie since it came from Andrew Davis who gave us The Fugitive, Under Siege and Above the Law.

DWilson

My first Chuck Norris film was "A Force of One", followed by "The Octagon", which were decent, but unexceptional. I thought "Silent Rage" was quite good. "Code of Silence" was terrific, and Andrew Davis went on to direct Steven Seagal's two best films. I've always had a soft spot for "Delta Force", though having Lee Marvin and Robert Forster adds a lot to it.

PhantomStranger

Chuck Norris is a legend. He turned out more quality action films than the other Eighties stars combined. Then he starred in the wildly popular Walker, Texas Ranger. For a capper to his career, he joined up with Christie Brinkley in the longest running infomercial in history.

I'm not sure people realize Norris was a legitimate superstar in American martial arts before making it in Hollywood.

GoldenJCJ

My dad loved Chick Norris movies so I was exposed to them via association. I think seeing that cocaine snorting straw jammed through that hooker's nose in Invasion USA did more to keep me off drugs than all those years of D.A.R.E. us early 90s kids had to grow up with.

No mention of Hero and the Terror? Aside from being a great Chuck Norris movie it's also one of the coolest movie titles ever!

And The Delta Force as cheesy as it is has a great score!

bunkaroo

No love for Firewalker?

DJariya

Chuck Norris is one of my favorite action stars of all-time.

I actually saw "A Force of One" in theaters at age 6 back in 1979.

This is how I would rate my top 5 in his library. I pretty much own every single one of his notable titles on BD/DVD.

1. The Delta Force - An all-time guilty pleasure. What's not to love? Chuck beating the shit out of Middle Eastern terrorists. Plus, an all-star cast that features Lee Marvin, George Kennedy, Shelley Winters and Martin Balsam.

2. Code of Silence - A gritty and grounded Chicago cop thriller. Probably the best role of Chuck's career.

3. Forced Vengeance -- Another favorite. Chuck in Hong Kong battling Chinese gangsters.

4. Invasion USA -- Pure adrenaline. Chuck being an "I don't give a fuck" badass killing Russian and Cuban terrorists.

5. The Octagon -- Chuck battling Ninjas -- Enough said.

I also watched Walker, Texas Ranger fairly religiously in repeats and Saturday nights on CBS. I own all 8 seasons on DVD. It was a very fun weekly action procedural with a great cast. Chuck and Sheree J. Wilson had great chemistry in the show.

He's 76 going on 77 now. I think for all intents and purposes he's retired now. There was a rumor that he was making a comeback in an Indie movie this year, but it looks like that may not be true.

DJariya

Other than a cute young Melody Anderson, it's a pretty bad Indiana Jones rip-off.

It aired on Encore Action about a year ago and I hadn't seen it years and watched it and it was pretty freaking bad.

TomOpus

Melody Anderson

OldBoy

i think i saw the original MIA, but never gravitated to Norris like i did other 80's action vets like Stallone and Arnold...

Ky-Fi

The worst major action-star actor of all time, hands down. And I say that as a fan! For all of his natural physical ability, he has the stiffest, most emotionless delivery of lines, and he seems to have never improved from his earliest roles.

He was awesome in Way of the Dragon, which I rank as Bruce's best film. Lone Wolf McQuade was his best solo film, IMO--such an over-the-top spaghetti western/80's action vibe. That movie is so much fun. The Octagon is another favorite of mine. Eye for an Eye, A Force of One and Forced Vengeance had their moments.

I really wish Chuck had done more pure martial arts movies in his prime, rather than the more guns-oriented action stuff.

I give Chuck a lot of credit, though--for somebody with no natural acting ability, he forged a film career for himself and made a bunch of entertaining movies.

mrhan

Bruce and Chuck in N.Y. (1967)

Chuck wasn't Bruce's first choice to be in Way of the Dragon. He wanted Joe Lewis to take the role but Joe turned him down saying he doesn't want anyone to see him get his ass kicked even though it was fake. Joe was one of the handful of people that actually kicked Chuck's ass in the ring. They were both Bruce's students.

Not too many people outside of martial arts knows this but it was Chuck who taught Bruce how to do high kicks. Prior to that he only did low kicks which was the norm for Wing Chun.

Jon2

WTH is "natural acting ability"?

Saying "so-and-so can't act" has become a meaningless cliche applied to nearly every actor for about the past half century who primarily did action movies.

While conveniently ignoring all those old school actors (Fairbanks, Power, Flynn, etc.) whose careers were made doing exactly those kind of movies... you know, the kind they made before "entertainment" became a dirty word and movies made for that purpose considered intellectually vacuous.

Ky-Fi

I've been on this forum for many years, and have engaged in countless debates in the politics and religion forum. I have argued vehemently about philosophy, religion, political movements, world history, indeed---the very nature of mankind and the universe.

Yet, if I was forced to choose one--and only one--statement of fact that is absolutely self-evident, that is unequivocally, undeniably true, it would be this: Chuck Norris is a terrible actor.

Abob Teff

There is no "appreciating" of Chuck Norris. One can only bask in the radiance and hope to glimpse the greatness of Chuck.

Chuck Norris does not lack acting skills. Acting skills hide out of fear of Chuck.

inri222

Use to like his films when I was a teen in the 80's. I remember watching A Force of One, Code of Silence, The Octogon (Lee Van Cleef baby!) and An Eye for An Eye (Christopher Lee & Richard Roundtree) in the theatre. As I got older I realized just how bad they were, but still enjoyable. Too bad Chuck lost his mind and became a right wing evangelical tin foil hat wearing loon.

Ash Ketchum

I'll never forget seeing INVASION U.S.A. on 42nd Street and the audience cheering on the terrorist army.

However, it bothered me that all Norris did in that movie was shoot and drive. No actual martial arts.

DWilson

I was actually disappointed by "Invasion USA". It's a great premise and a great trailer, but the actual film lacked scope (and the necessary budget) and I hoped it would be more provocative and reactionary.
The final scene between Norris and veteran bad guy Richard Lynch is clumsily filmed but I always wait for it if I stumble across the film.

DJariya

One thing I noticed about Norris late in his career, especially in Walker, Texas Ranger was that he stopped doing hand to hand combat fight scenes and usually was replaced by a stuntman in a wig.

I'm giving Invasion USA the benefit of the doubt since it was a Cannon Films production and they put very limited money into it.

Also, an interesting tidbit to mention. In the extras of Invasion USA, James Bruner (the writer of several Chuck films) mentioned that Mission in Action 2: The Beginning was actually supposed to be the 1st movie in that series and it was actually filmed 1st. But Cannon liked the Mission in Action better and had that released 1st. Bruner mentioned he was fired during production of MIA 3. He said Cannon went cheap on that movie.

Bluelitespecial

I am watching Invasion USA for the first time right now, I'm pretty excited.

Brack

The only movie of his I'd consider decent was The Delta Force. Everything else was meh to horrible, though I liked some of them as a guilty pleasure.

When I was 11, I took karate, and the head of the small chain of dojos was pretty good friends with Chuck. They even arranged for an early screening for the film Sidekicks, so I have a soft spot for that Karate Kid ripoff. He signed autographs and I think my mom even took a snapshot of him with me standing in front of him at signing table. I'll see if I can find the photo (probably somewhere in a box at my folks if it still exists).

Quatermass

fixed

EddieMoney

Lone Wolf McQuade is one of the greatest films ever made.

kd5

I remember seeing The Octagon when I was young, thought it was a decent enough movie that when I saw it at a flea market I snagged it up. Spent the whole movie wondering why I was listening to Chuck whisper to himself thinking this is stupid, not to mention the plot seemed not nearly as engaging as I thought I'd remembered it. Ended up selling it on Ebay.

Josh-da-man

I remember seeing a bunch of Chuck Norris movies on cable/HBO back in the 80s.

I don't actually remember which ones, as they've all sort of blurred together into one extended ball of mental shit. Okay, I know I saw at least one of the two Missing in Action things, but that's it.

mrhan

I remember when Martial Law and Walker were back to back on CBS. The following season Walker copied the Martial Law ensemble by adding a female cop who knew martial arts. Walker was already bad but adding Nia Peeples actually made it worse.